Rebreather hygiene question

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Sas

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Ok this might be a weird/silly question but I have been wanting to do a rebreather try day in a pool (they come up now and then), just for something fun to try out (don't have any plans to buy one). However, how does it work when you are swapping the rebreather between people hygiene wise? I have a buddy who uses a rebreather and I have seen the saliva goop that comes out of his counter lungs (or whatever they are called) so I was kinda worried about germs from other people...

Do they get cleaned between people? If not, is it very unhygienic to share a rebreather with someone?
 
They generally do not get cleaned between people. I attended a rebreather try dive a few years ago at a local LDS. They sprayed the mouth pieces between divers with Listerene, but that doesn't do anything for the "stuff" in the loop or counter lungs. It IS gross if you think about it, so I didn't. Hopefully anyone sponsoring a try dive day in your area will insist anyone with a cold goes last. Good luck :D
 
The event that I attended prior to buying my unit, they were cleaned prior to use by each person. Actually, they ran us through the cleaning procedure ourselves, so we'd be familiar with the maintenance aspects as well.

If they don't do that, be sure you're the first to try it. :D

And I'm not gonna share my loop with someone else. I don't even like sharing it with me.
 
my o2 cents:
there is a one way valve right inside the exhale side of most if not all DSV's, little saliva has a chance to come back normally, all exhaled air goes through the scrubber, a highly inhospitable medium for just about any life. the Inhale side is probably one of the closest things to sterile you will breathe from in your lifetime.

from what i've seen, it's pretty much common practice to rinse the breathing hoses in the pool water, maybe spray them with a few squirts of disinfectant and move on to the next person.

I don't worry too much about it.

try outs are fun, enjoy!

G
 
This probably won't help to answer your question about "Demo" days. But here is the product we recommend;



> RelyOn Multi-Purpose Disinfectant Cleaner

Over the years, rebreather divers have used many products as breathing loop disinfectants and cleaners, often with questionable safety, uncertain efficacy, and poor material compatibility. In 2002 at the request of the Canadian Forces diving community, Defence Research and Development Canada report studied nine different disinfectants: Advance TBE, BI-Arrest, Buddy Clean, CaviCide®, Confidence, Listerine® Antiseptic, Sanizide™, TriGene II, and Virkon®. They concluded that only one, Virkon, could be primarily recommended for disinfecting rebreathers.
Virkon was developed and is manufactured at the Antec International facility in the UK, which became a DuPont company late in 2003. Virkon's most common "S" formulation is used primarily in veterinary/animal livestock applications. DuPont changed the name of the Virkon formulation suitable for human use to be RelyOn™ Multi-Purpose Disinfectant Cleaner. RelyOn MDC is manufactured under more strenuous production controls and quality assurance testing, making it suitable for human use.
 
The event that I attended prior to buying my unit, they were cleaned prior to use by each person. Actually, they ran us through the cleaning procedure ourselves, so we'd be familiar with the maintenance aspects as well.

If they don't do that, be sure you're the first to try it. :D

And I'm not gonna share my loop with someone else. I don't even like sharing it with me.

Ok good, glad to know it is not unreasonable to expect the people running it to clean the rebreather first... Given that's an option I won't risk trying them after other people have without cleaning.

I also avoid sharing regs wherever possible... and rebreather seems a lot grosser than a reg!

Oh and I have my own wetsuit :D
 
Ok this might be a weird/silly question but I have been wanting to do a rebreather try day in a pool (they come up now and then), just for something fun to try out (don't have any plans to buy one). However, how does it work when you are swapping the rebreather between people hygiene wise? I have a buddy who uses a rebreather and I have seen the saliva goop that comes out of his counter lungs (or whatever they are called) so I was kinda worried about germs from other people...

Do they get cleaned between people? If not, is it very unhygienic to share a rebreather with someone?

Not a weird/silly question at all - I wouldn't use a rebreather unit after someone else unless I cleaned, sanitized and assembled the unit myself including changing the scrubber with fresh material regardless of what color it is or what the scrubber sensor says. If this is not addressed, find another instructor to demo with. PM me if you would like a recommendation.

Marz
 
Nothing can live in the scrubber. NOTHING, not TB or any other bacterium or virus. It's the same material as used in anesthesia machines in surgery and they do not change sorb between pts. The rest of the loop, well I'll stay away from anyone else's lung butter.
 

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